Rise in TB infection rates could “turn clock back to 1930s”
13 February 2013
Tuberculosis looks set to defy concerted efforts to treat it
successfully with powerful drugs, turning the clock back to the
1930s, warn the editors of the journal Thorax in a special themed
issue to mark World TB day on March 24.
TB often lies dormant with no symptoms, but in a proportion of
cases, becomes active, predominantly attacking the lungs. But it can
also affect the bones and nervous system, and if left untreated can
be fatal. The infection is developing increasing resistance around
the world to the powerful drugs currently used to treat it.
During the 1930s, dedicated sanitaria and invasive surgery were
commonly prescribed for those with the infection — usually caused by
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which the editors describe as
“the most successful human pathogen of all time".
“Whatever we may have once optimistically thought, TB remains
with death, taxes and political chicanery as being inevitable,
unavoidable and deeply unpleasant,” write the joint editors, Andy
Bush and Ian Pavord. “It shows every sign of weathering the storm
and superb randomised controlled trials, to emerge in
ever-increasingly drug-resistant forms, potentially turning the
clock back to the 1930s. This edition of Thorax, coinciding with
world TB day, is themed to recognise the ongoing sinister successes
of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, unarguably the most
successful human pathogen of all time.”
The issue contains international research papers, looking at a
broad range of issues, from the risk of TB after seroconversion to
HIV infection, to the impact of ethnicity on the pattern of disease.